Celery: scrumptious, crunchy and excellent in a salad. On the identical time, we all know that bearded dragons admire all kinds of various kinds of meals, so an apparent query is that if they’ll have celery?
Bearded dragons can eat celery.
Certainly, many bearded dragons appear to take pleasure in consuming celery as a lot as we do (minus the salad dressing clearly!).
There are after all just a few downsides to feeding celery to your bearded dragon.
Firstly, celery could be fairly “stringy” at some instances of the 12 months.
Secondly, celery has such a excessive moisture content material that it’s not probably the most dietary meals to present your beardie.
Thirdly, celery is comparatively excessive in sodium (salt) which may have an effect on hydration ranges and, in excessive instances, blood stress.
Lastly it’s fairly excessive in sugar – although after all nowhere close to as excessive as fruit.
Nevertheless don’t go considering that celery is essentially a “dangerous” meals for bearded dragons. It’s really full of nutritional vitamins and minerals, so can type a helpful occasional a part of your beardie’s weight loss plan.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Celery Leaves?
The leaves of celery are protected to feed to your bearded dragon.
The truth is, they’re an awesome supply of fiber and might help to maintain your beardie’s digestive system wholesome.
Nevertheless, try to be conscious that the leaves are far more “stringy” than the stalks. So in case you do determine to feed celery leaves, it’s possible you’ll wish to chop them up into smaller items first.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Cooked or Uncooked Celery?
Bearded dragons can eat each uncooked and cooked celery.
Whereas it’s most typical to feed bearded dragons uncooked celery, most will definitely eat celery that has been cooked. Cooking celery could be fairly a good suggestion at some instances of the 12 months, as a result of the cooking course of gently softens the meals, and helps to take away the stringiness present in some stems.
Cooking celery doesn’t need to be troublesome. The quickest answer is to finely chop it, then both boil it or shortly stir-fry it for a couple of minutes. The smaller the items, the extra shortly they’ll cook dinner.
Can Bearded Dragons Eat Celery On a regular basis?
When you’re questioning if it’s protected to feed celery to your bearded dragon on a regular basis, the reply is not any.
Celery is excessive in moisture and low in dietary worth. So whereas your beardie will take pleasure in consuming it, there are a lot better meals on the market that may present them with extra of the vitamins they want.
That stated, you possibly can safely feed celery to your bearded dragon just a few instances every week as a part of a diversified weight loss plan. Or if you wish to give it as a deal with once in a while, that’s high quality too. Simply make sure that they don’t have an excessive amount of of it at anyone time!
Vitamins Present in Celery
Whereas celery could be very excessive in water content material, the dry matter does comprise a shocking variety of vitamins which might be useful for bearded dragons.
Nutritional vitamins: A bearded dragon that’s fed celery will profit from a variety of nutritional vitamins. In response to nutritionists, celery is wealthy in vitamin A, riboflavin, vitamin B6, pantothenic acid, folate, vitamin C and vitamin Okay.
Minerals: Celery accommodates useful quantities of magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and manganese.
Fiber: Celery is taken into account a excessive fiber meals. It might probably due to this fact be helpful for feeding alongside extra sugary meals like fruit, because it slows down the absorption of those sugars to a extra manageable charge.
Oxalate Ranges in Celery
Oxalic acid can bind calcium within the digestive system, that means that your bearded dragon is unable to soak up ample calcium from their weight loss plan. Clearly this can be a dangerous factor.
It seems there’s some disagreement inside the reptile-keeping group about oxalate ranges in celery. On nearer inspection, nevertheless, it appears this uncertainty comes all the way down to the preparation methodology.
Among the best-known research of oxalic acid classed uncooked celery stems as “low” in oxalates, whereas the identical examine positioned cooked celery within the “excessive” class.
When you’re involved about oxalic acid ranges in your bearded dragon’s weight loss plan (and try to be) then it’s price feeding primarily uncooked celery. Solely feed cooked celery very sometimes, more likely to treatment some significantly stringy stems you’ve purchased.
Calcium to Phosphorus Ratio of Celery
Calcium and phosphorus are two of a very powerful vitamins for skeletal well being. It’s essential that your bearded dragon is getting sufficient of each, and in the proper ratio.
The optimum calcium:phosphorus ratio for lizards like bearded dragons is believed to be 2:1 – which means twice as a lot calcium and phosphorus.
Sadly celery has a calcium to phosphorus ratio of round 1.4:1. Whereas that’s removed from the perfect, it’s nowhere close to the worst offenders one can discover.
So whereas this shouldn’t dissuade you from feeding celery to your bearded dragon, it does imply it needs to be fed carefully.
How you can Feed Celery To Your Bearded Dragon
There are just a few useful ideas that may make feeding celery to your bearded dragon extra profitable.
Wash the Celery – Celery is well-known for inflicting digestive upsets if not washed totally. So tear off a stalk and thoroughly wash each side underneath a operating faucet earlier than giving it to your beardie.
Finely Chop the Stalks (and Stems) – Celery could be vulnerable to being “stringy”. If you wish to cut back the possibilities of your bearded dragon choking on a stringy little bit of celery then finely chopping it’s a good answer.
Supply Solely as a Deal with – Whereas celery does have plenty of nutritional vitamins and minerals in, the downsides to celery which were laid out imply it ought to solely be fed sometimes. Attempt to mix it with different greens or salad gadgets when feeding to counteract the low calcium to phosphorus ratio.
